HSPD-12 mandates a Government-wide standard for secure and reliable forms of identification issued by the Federal Government to its employees and contractor employees (under the terms of applicable contracts) for physical access to all Federally-controlled facilities and logical access to Federally-controlled information systems .

Background

In accordance with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Under Secretary of Defense guidance , initial CAC issuance will include a CAC-eligibility determination, verification of affiliation from an authoritative data source, favorable completion of a fingerprint check with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), verification of claimed identity, and submission of a NACI (or equivalent investigation) to OPM. Furthermore, to retain a CAC, Army military, civilian, or contractor personnel must receive a favorably adjudicated NACI or equivalent investigation.
The Secretary of the Army recently signed Army Directive 2011 08 requiring the implementation of HSPD-12 with full compliance by end of FY13